Bensington's flat.


V.

The flat was occupied, it seemed to him--to the exclusion of all other
sensible objects--by Mr. Skinner and his voice, if indeed you can call
either him or it a sensible object!

The voice was up very high slopping about among the notes of anguish.
"Itth impothible for uth to thtop, Thir. We've thtopped on hoping
thingth would get better and they've only got worth, Thir. It ithn't
on'y the waptheth, Thir--thereth big earwigth, Thir--big ath that,
Thir." (He indicated all his hand and about three inches of fat dirty
wrist.) "They pretty near give Mithith Thkinner fitth, Thir. And the
thtinging nettleth by the runth, Thir, _they're_ growing, Thir, and the
canary creeper, Thir, what we thowed near the think, Thir--it put itth
tendril through the window in the night, Thir, and very nearly caught
Mithith Thkinner by the legth, Thir. Itth that food of yourth, Thir.
Wherever we thplathed it about, Thir, a bit, it'th thet everything
growing ranker, Thir, than I ever thought anything could grow. Itth
impothible to thtop a month, Thir. Itth more than our liveth are worth,
Thir. Even if the waptheth don't thting uth, we thall be thuffocated by
the creeper, Thir. You can't imagine, Thir--unleth you come down to
thee, Thir--"

He turned his superior eye to the cornice above Redwood's head. "'Ow do
we know the ratth 'aven't got it, Thir! That 'th what I think of motht,
Thir. I 'aven't theen any big ratth, Thir, but 'ow do I know, Thir. We
been frightened for dayth becauth of the earwigth we've theen--like